AIBU to be fucked off at road marathons?

[JesusOnAYamaha]

Once a year in London is one thing but they're bloody everywhere now and it's not like the organisers put diversions in so you can get to where you're going. We had one in our town a couple of months ago and I couldn't leave my (no through) street because they blocked it off so people could spend a day running past it. I mean I couldn't even cross the road at the end of my street, on foot. Now I've just found out that I can't get to where I need to be for a family event later this month because another load of joggers are closing down a bunch of roads into/in this other place.

AIBU to think they could just run round a park? Or a field? Or a racecourse? Or a hill? Or somewhere where they're not in the way of residents and other people who just want to go about their business.

I know I probably am BU. It's probably nice that people get to run around if they like running. They probably enjoy spending a day running past my street and I should be happy for them. But, I am a bit fucked off with it all.

Most probably. Been driving for many years and I don’t do any of these things! I doubt it’s more than a minority that do, but they obviously have a noticeable impact.

How did you find Manchester Half today?

A pain in the neck. Had to stay home all day with disabled family members.

@NotAnotherCodeBlueAt3Am - you'll be pleased to hear that Mcr marathon have announced today that the finish will no longer be at Old Trafford, but will be in the city centre instead. So I guess they'll be able to open the Trafford roads much earlier. The full route hasn't been published yet, but it will probably be good news for you.

Just coming back to this after helping at my local parkrun yesterday.

Some suggestions have been that people should use trail or parks and run loops. After 1 parkrun (of 300 people) yesterday the ground was fairly churned up, the route is 3 loops of approx 1 mile. I can't imagine what it would have looked like after 23 more!! One of the volunteers was saying we might need to be creative with the course to protect the ground. Other parkruns have been closed by the woodland trust for damage to the paths/ground, and 2 xc races last year were cancelled - one due to the ground being a site of historically interest and the other for conservation reasons.....so the fewer choices that are available, the bigger the races (usually bigger, expensive races) that are able to go ahead, become, if that makes sense? The great south run was cancelled today so that might be a relief for anyone who would have been negatively impacted.

I'm not saying it's OK that people feel trapped in their houses, or can't have their care needs attended, but trying to explain how it's not as easy to just say you can run round a field.

Yeah I get it’s probably a logistical nightmare which is highly complex. And if I had to organise the thing I would probably think it made sense to put it around the same route.

It probably took a huge team a considerable period of time to establish a route plus risks/impacts/analysis etc.

Exactly this!

I'm not sure it's just a minority who park on pavements, but that's for another thread!

Fair enough, I don't live there and I don't know how much of a pain it is. We have a local 10k soon and I am just waiting for all the moaning to start for the 90 minutes of possible inconvenience!

How many races were there in the past few weeks? Or do you mean roadworks which seem to be plaguing most of the country at the moment.

@sharpclawedkitten Road races. Manchester Marathon and Altrincham 10k. Both times the closed roads completely encircle our area so we are literally blocked for the duration.

The Manchester Marathon has raised over £3.5 million allocated to charities such as Alzheimer’s Charity, Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and The Christie and this year provisional economic spend in the city amounted to £29.2 million.
The bastards.

I imagine this is the equation that councils and organisers are trying to balance

Amount of money(profit) for organisers
Amount of money raised for charity
Amount of money spent on local hotels/businesses/parking etc
Potentially publicity for the area

Versus
Negative impact on residents (and to be fair a lot of people might not know how or who to complain to, so the council/organisers might receive eg 50 complaints when in fact the number of people negatively impacted might have been a lot higher)

Wtf? If people object to being hemmed in then they must be responsible for antisocial and behaviour? They are clearly impeding the emergency services? Do you not realise how ridiculous you sound?

Cheers. I will let my autistic daughter know that she should be delighted to sit in the house all day so that Whitbread corporation and charities will do well out of it. I will tell her to think of the greater good. Very glad we got your tuppence worth.

Not everyone on this thread is a motorist, thank you.

Not sure how I sound ridiculous - and I didn't say anything about anti-social behaviour (although parking on pavements and in cycle lanes IS anti-social behaviour in my view). People (drivers) moan about pedestrians using the roads for a few hours a year. Well how very dare they.

Even though they routinely block the way to other road users on a regular basis.

It is ridiculous to moan about runners when you routinely park on pavements, for example.

Plan ahead. Easy.

If you're not a motorist the chances are you inconvenience others in other ways. Everyone does. Some try not to do it on purpose, others don't care. And even if you don't drive yourself, you are probably driven at times.

I'm wondering, how do people who may benefit from the money raised feel about being blocked in?
In an ideal world we would not need to rely on charities to support people.

I have raised a lot of money for The Brain Tumour Charity. Now I'm thinking that I'm possibly stopping the very person I'm trying to do my little bit for by..I don't know...stopping their carers being able to get to them, or them not being able to get out and do something they enjoy.

@widelegenes Does your fundraising need to be so performative? Laudable to raise much for a worthy cause, but isn't it rather ostentatious. That old saying (from the bible maybe?) that the left hand shouldn't know what the right hand is doing. Charity is such a big business these days.

Give to charity. Enjoy your running and challenging youself. No need to mix the two imo.

Fair question. I do give to charity independently of any fundraising I do. It's private and personal to me (but I can say it here cos it's anonymous).
When I ran my first (and ever!) marathon I raised nearly £2000 ie. more than I would give myself. I think the London Marathon is the biggest source of income for many charities.

You're really not. Despite the moaning above, if an ambulance or carer needs to get through the marshals will let them.

Marshals receive a briefing before the event. Many of them do the job year after year. It is an insult to their intelligence to say that they don't use common sense and let people through when they need to get through.

That’s bull. The carers around here are walking to people and parking a considerable distance away. If an ambulance has to take someone to hospital, it doesn’t gain wings and fly. It has to travel down the thin congested roads and get stuck behind all the other traffic. The infrastructure surrounding these closed roads is impacted.

I have raised a lot of money for The Brain Tumour Charity.
Thank you. My brother died of a brain tumor (glioma). He was 9. There's nothing 'ostentatious' (I mean wow, just wow) about raising funds to help brain tumour patients and their families. It remains the biggest cancer killer of people under 40 and research is desperately underfunded.

if an ambulance or carer needs to get through the marshals will let them
I've marshalled loads and that's always been my experience too